The Precinct Child
by SarahShalomDavid
Summary: Months after finding a child being held captive by Hoyt, they find themselves planning a wedding whilst caring for their new daughter.


It had been almost two months since Sarah was rescued from the clutches of Hoyt and she had gradually begun to come out of her shell and be more confident although she still refused to talk to a lot of people at the precinct and especially if she didn't know them. This though had led to the child escaping every time an officer was tasked with looking after the girl for a short period of time. Jane encouraged it as she was finding it rather amusing that the little girl could escape trained officers and end up sitting at her desk or in Maura's office or even in the cafe where Angela was working. She never left the station on her own though as she knew not to and she never spoke to strangers.

The young girl had a mischievous streak and had escaped at one point by managing to cuff Frankie to a radiator and then leaving him there. That day she had escaped because she wanted to sit with Jane who was working on a case. The dark haired Italian woman simply shook her head and after finding out Frankie was handcuffed she found it highly amusing and left him there for a while before sending Frost to him with the key. Instead of handing the girl back to Frankie she chose instead to keep her with her but put headphones on her so she could play with the woman's phone and listen to music. It meant the child wouldn't hear any of the case details as she had a habit of being nosey.

She had a habit of reading everything that she could possibly get her hands on as her reading was very much advanced for her age. This meant that not only were books read and posters along with leaflets and magazines but also case files if they were left within her reach. It didn't matter if it was one of the homicide files or one belonging to another unit because she wandered around the precinct as though it were her home and was accepted into any team she walked into. Granted the majority of people she didn't speak to but she still managed to get her own way through ways other than speaking and the few she spoke to tended to be women. The only men she spoke to were Frankie, Frost and Korsak although even that wasn't often. If the child turned up in a different team/unit's office then they would call the homicide unit to inform them or call Maura to tell her that they had the child. Despite the fact that she had a tendency to wander off, those at the precinct did manage to keep track of her whereabouts and keep an eye on her without her noticing.

Whenever she went into the cafe she would run to Angela who would end up spoiling the girl with hot chocolate and pastries. Angela's cannolis had quickly become the girl's favourite. However she would always take one up to Jane afterwards which of course the woman loved. One of the bonuses of the child being spoilt by many of the staff was that she would be given a lot of candy which she knew she wasn't allowed to eat it all so the majority ended up in Jane's desk so that she could have some a little at a time rather than go on a sugar binge.

It had been an detective's birthday a month after she had been found and she had wandered into a different unit and Sarah had returned to Maura's office wearing a birthday party hat and with a rather big slice of birthday cake. She had a huge grin on her face that day and had revealed that she was allowed to sing happy birthday with the others. The little girl had rather enjoyed being in on the celebrations and it was the first time she had spoken to anyone in that unit as she had previously been silent with them. The young child had rushed to Jane's desk and pulled out a few pieces of candy and taken that to the woman as a birthday present.

Gradually her colouring stash was growing too as various detectives and officers would encourage her to sit in their bullpen and draw as a way to keep the child in one place. This never worked for long.

Two months after she was found and she was now a rather energetic child at times but often quite quiet. She had just had a cannoli but had slipped out of the cafe before Angela had a chance to clean her up as she had cream around her mouth and a dab on her nose, this time she hadn't spilt it on her dress. The dress was light blue with white trim and she had a matching bow in her hair and matching shoes. Her hair was down and was a mass of shiny curls. Her hair was in much better condition than when she had been found.

She climbed into the elevator in order to go down to Maura's lab and an officer was in there to go to one of the other lower floors. He made the mistake of suggesting that the child press the buttons. Especially as he didn't specify which ones so she pressed each and every one of them. He bit his lip and shook his head in amusement as he tried not to laugh at the child's antics.

When the elevator arrived to the floor of Maura's office, the child ran out of the silver box and towards where she thought Maura might be.

Maura smiled brightly when she heard the familiar sound of the child's running and quickly tugged off her gloves and apron before leaving the autopsy room to meet her. She had a habit of entering the autopsy room whether there was a body on the table or not as it didn't seem to faze her at all. She was a very intelligent child who was very interested in everything the woman did despite Jane thinking that the child was crazy to be into such things. Jane did secretly think it was rather cute and imagined Maura to have been like that as a child.

They had decided to adopt the child after discovering her locked in an abandoned room at one of Hoyt's hideouts. The child's family had been killed by him but when she awoke during the event on Christmas Eve, she had mistaken him for Santa and for some reason he had spared her life unlike her siblings.

Sarah grinned happily as she launched herself at the Medical Examiner and snuggled in as the woman's arms wrapped around her securely. Both women had quickly come to love the child and within a day they had come to realise that the child had no living relatives. They had refused to hand her over to children's services and instead kept her with them whilst giving the excuse of her being needed for the investigation. She had given them a lot of useful information in relation to the case but they kept hold of her for longer than necessary.

When the girl had originally been found, the couple had only been dating for just over six months but since adopting the child, Jane had proposed and they were now planning a wedding with their new daughter.

If someone had told them a year previously that they would be planning a wedding together and would have a six year old child then they would have thought them to be crazy and put them in a psychiatric unit despite the both of them wanting it to be true.


End file.
